Effect of New Jersey's Paid Family Leave Policy of 2009 on Maternal Health and Well-Being

Background and Purpose

While the United States lacks a national paid parental leave policy, a few states have built on existing social insurance programs to ensure a short period of paid parental leave immediately after childbirth. These are promising developments with the potential to improve the quality of life of many workers, particularly new mothers, since only 12% of private sector workers have access to paid family leave through employers and one in four mothers return to work within 10 days of childbirth as they cannot afford more time off, at potentially a great cost to their own and their families’ well-being. In this paper, I examine the effect of the 2009 policy change in New Jersey on women’s health and well-being.

Methods

Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System annual surveys and random child selection modules from 2005 to 2012, I identify potentially eligible mothers from individual level variation in month-year of child’s birth and state level variation in parental leave policies, and employ a triple difference research design. I examine multiple self-reported outcomes related to physical, mental and emotional health.

Results

I find strong evidence of improvements in women’s physical health. I further find variation in effects in subgroup analyses, with significant positive effects on the well-being of employed single mothers and women from lower-middle income families, and significant improvements in the experience of stress, depression and emotional well-being for relatively disadvantaged groups.

Conclusions and Implications

Findings of this study have important implications for the evidence base regarding US state family leave policies. Firstly, while prior research has established important gains to child health as a consequence of US state paid parental leave policies, this study provides evidence of gains to maternal physical health, further strengthening the maternal and child health argument for paid family leave policies. Secondly, this study confirms prior findings from California and New Jersey that relatively disadvantaged groups such as single mothers and lower to middle income mothers tend to see significant positive wellbeing consequences of paid parental leave policies, thereby also highlighting the inequities of unpaid leave policies, which remain the reality for most of the country.  And finally, this study raises the possibility that the same policy might have negative consequences for relatively advantaged groups such as highly educated, high income, and married mothers, since increased stress, depression and emotional problems are observed for such groups after policy implementation.